Republican Governor's Association

At Miami conference, GOP governors vow to right the ship
BY PATRICIA MAZZEI
Two roads diverged in the GOP's path toward the future in a meeting of Republican governors in Miami this week -- and Gov. Charlie Crist took the one for a more moderate party.

Still struggling with its party's election defeat, the Republican Governors Association tried to represent a unified front, led by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She gave her first national news conference Thursday as she tried to capitalize on her celebrity to become the party's next leader as the former vice-presidential nominee and head of an energy-rich state.

But governors were split on how to attract more voters to the GOP at the national level.

Party traditionalists called for the GOP to turn to its origins of small government and low taxes to restore faith in conservative principles. Moderate reformers like Crist tried to pull their peers to the ideological center to appeal to the working class and minorities.

''This party can no longer hope to reach Hispanics, African Americans and other minority groups -- we need to just do it,'' Crist said. ``Embracing cultures and lifestyles will make us a better party and better leaders.''

Crist was not alone. Forcefully backing his view were governors like Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, perhaps the loudest advocate urging the party to bring pocketbook issues into its discourse and technology into its campaigns.

''We weren't even in the same universe in this campaign when it came to structure,'' said Pawlenty, once mentioned as a possible running mate for John McCain. ``The Republicans are 15 years behind in terms of the technology applied to the campaign.''

Still, those sweeping statements might prove difficult to act on and could risk alienating sectors of the party. Governors at the two-day meeting at the Hotel InterContinental cast Republicans in Washington as hand-tied now that the GOP does not control the White House or Congress for the first time in 14 years.

And more traditional members of the party could frown on a largely nonpartisan message rather than being the voice of opposition.

'John Deere has great engineering capacity, but when they get into trouble they don't say, `Let's build airplanes,' '' said South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. ``They go back to the core.''

Despite the somewhat gloomy mood that lingered over the two-day meeting, GOP leaders patted themselves on the back for not losing any gubernatorial seats and picking up one in Puerto Rico.

The party traditionalists blamed the election loss on an unpopular war and an economic crisis. The presidential race was closer than they expected under the circumstances, they argued.

''I have seen it a lot worse, folks,'' Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said.

In the middle of the discussion was Palin, who on Thursday took four questions from reporters clamoring to know why she was speaking to them now and not before Election Day.

''The campaign is over,'' she said, adding that she did not want to dissect past strategy. ``We're focused on the future, and the future for us is not that 2012 presidential race. It's next year and our next budgets and the next reforms in our states.

''We are now the minority party, but let us resolve to not become the negative party,'' Palin said. ``Losing an election does not have to mean losing our way.''

Governors weren't looking to agree with one of the two sides so soon after the election, focusing instead on solving state problems, promoting the party's principles and showcasing stars like Crist, Palin, Pawlenty and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. But the debate on whether the party should take more dramatic steps is likely to linger, and if one of the camps persuades the other, that could mark the future for the party -- and for leaders like Crist.

''People mostly want to follow positive leaders,'' Pawlenty said. ``They don't want to follow grumps.''

That said, he added: ``There is a lot that has happened in terms of our country since Ronald Reagan was president. . . . We're going to need more than just a political comb-over. We're going to need a more dramatic approach to things.''

Begging for Money $$

Big Three beg for aid as auto-industry bailout bill stalls

WASHINGTON -- Detroit's Big Three auto makers are begging Congress for a $25 billion government rescue, while the legislation clings to life support on Capitol Hill and top lawmakers and the White House suffer from bailout fatigue.

Democratic congressional leaders want to tap the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package for new loans to U.S. auto manufacturers and suppliers, but the White House and GOP lawmakers say the beleaguered industry shouldn't get any new funds.

President George W. Bush and GOP lawmakers instead propose diverting $25 billion in loans approved by Congress in September -- designed to help auto manufacturers retool their factories so they can make more fuel-efficient vehicles -- to cover the firms' immediate financial woes.

But auto executives, backed by leading Democrats, insist they need another $25 billion in emergency loans to avert a collapse of one or more of their companies before year's end. That would bring the total federal help for the industry to $50 billion this year.

The executives, along with the head of the United Auto Workers union, were making their case Tuesday at a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee as auto bailout backers hunted the votes necessary to pass the plan in a postelection session. Aides in both parties and lobbyists tracking the plan privately acknowledge they are far short.

The debate comes as the financial situation for General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC grows more precarious. GM has said it could run out of cash by year's end without government aid.

"They're going to need to address what is the perception among some of our colleagues here that there's still some quality issues with the Big Three, and they haven't begun to do the necessary restructuring -- because they have," said Sen. Carl M. Levin, D-Mich., an architect of the bailout.

GM had a winner, Wha? -happened?

Performance - 2001 data
0-60 mph acceleration in less than 9 seconds

Electronically regulated top speed of 80 mph (129 km/h)

0.19 aerodynamic drag coefficient (25% lower than any other production car)

Estimated Range*:
Standard: High-capacity lead-acid battery pack - 55 to 95 miles per charge*
Optional: Nickel-metal hydride battery pack - 75 to 130 miles per charge*

Estimated Energy Consumption Information (kW/hr per 100 miles):
Standard: High-capacity lead-acid battery pack - 26 city/26 highway
Optional: Nickel-metal hydride battery pack - 34 city/30 highway

Estimated Time from Zero to Complete State of Charge at 70 degrees with normal humidity:
Standard: High-capacity lead-acid battery pack - 5.5 to
6 hours using the 220-volt (6.6kW) charger;
22 to 24 hours using the 110-volt (1.2kW)
convenience charger
Optional: Nickel-metal hydride battery pack - 6 to 8 hours using the 220-volt (6.6kW) charger

60-0 mph braking distance of 160 feet (49 m)

*Actual mileage and range will vary as a result of driving style, terrain, temperature and accessory usage, particularly as affected by ambient temperature and the use of heating and air conditioning.

Power Rating: 102 kilowatts (137 horsepower) @ 7,000 rpm
Motor Torque: 150 Nm (110 lb-ft) @ 0-7,000 rpm

Transaxle Type: Single-speed with dual reduction gears
Drive Ratio: 10:946:1

Power Management System: Insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) power inverter

Battery Packs:
Standard: 26 valve-regulated high-capacity lead-acid modules
Optional: 26 valve-regulated nickel-metal hydride modules
1 underhood accessory module

Rated Maximum Battery Pack Storage Capacity:
Standard: High-capacity lead-acid battery pack - 18.7 kW hours/60 amp hours (312 volts)
Optional: Nickel-metal hydride battery pack - 26.4 kW hours/77 amp hours (343 volts)

Battery Pack Weight:
Standard: High-capacity lead-acid battery pack - 1310 pounds
Optional: Nickel-metal hydride battery pack - 1147 pounds

Safety Features

Anti-lock braking system (ABS)
Traction control
Check tire pressure system
Air bags* and three-point shoulder/lap seatbelts
Projector lowbeam/reflector optic highbeam headlights
Daytime running lamps (DRL)
Electronic keypad entry/vehicle activation system with programmable personal identification number
Electric windshield defogger/deicer
Electric rear window defogger with automatic shutof

Comfort/Convenience Features
Power windows, door locks and dual outside mirrors
Cruise control with downgrade and upgrade speed regulation
Premium AM/FM stereo with cassette and CD player, four speakers and digital clock
Computer-controlled "heat pump" climate control system with preconditioning feature and CFC-free air conditioning refrigerant; new electric heater
Center-mounted vacuum fluorescent instrumentation
Interior courtesy lights with delayed shutoff feature
Solar reflective/absorptive glass
Intermittent windshield wipers with washer system
Remote hood and trunklid releases
Four-way adjustable bucket seats with lightweight alloy frames
Carpeted floor mats
Carpeted cargo area with cargo net

bad news for citigroup

Another Ax Swings At Citi
Maurna Desmond, 11.17.08

Citigroup is cutting more fat than expected to get through the credit crunch.

At a so-called town hall meeting in New York on Monday morning, Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit told employees that 53,000 jobs would be cut by the end of the first quarter of 2009. The number of layoffs was a jump from earlier estimates being tossed around as late as Friday when Pandit tried to ease employee anxiety while calling for greater efficiency during tight times. (See "At Citi, Pandit Calls For Calm”)

Investors weren't assured by the payroll contraction. New York-based Citigroup fell 3.8%, or 33 cents, to $9.19 during morning trading, leaving its shares at a 73.1% discount from their year ago price.

Citi has been under pressure to perform after posting four consecutive quarterly losses with a combined deficit of more than $20.0 billion and losing a high-profile struggle with Wells Fargo to acquire Wachovia.

Its rivals, JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, have managed to stay out of the red and strategically expand by swallowing weaker financial outfits. (See "Watching Wall Street's Shotgun Weddings")

Citi said its total headcount would be reduced by 20.0% from its peak of 375,000 at the end of 2007. In October, Citigroup announced that 22,000 jobs were being cut from those levels. Investors and analysts had speculated that 10.0%, or 35,000 jobs, would be cut leading up to Monday’s announcement.

Shrinking Citi might make it easier for the firm to acquire a deposit-rich regional bank that would give it the capital base it needs to get through the global credit crisis. Likely candidates inlcude SunTrust Banks, Regions Financial, and BB&T. (See "Citi's Shrinking Target List")

uber rich may see penalties

US determined to unlock Switzerland's banking secrets
Prosecutors have accused UBS, the country's biggest bank, of cloak-and-dagger activities

* Andrew Clark
* guardian.co.uk, Friday November 14 2008 11.11 GMT

The Zurich headquarters of the Swiss banking giant UBS. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP

Switzerland -- It is a world of encrypted laptops, unmarked mail and the briefest stops in multiple hotels. Accusations by US prosecutors this week shed a fascinating light on the allegedly cloak-and-dagger world of UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank.

A grand jury in Florida has charged one of UBS's top executives, Raoul Weil, with helping 17,000 Americans to avoid tax by safeguarding their money in secret Swiss bank accounts.

Weil, who is based in Zurich, is the head of UBS's wealth management division, and his prosecution is likely to cause deep alarm at the highest levels of Switzerland's banking establishment.

"There's enough in this indictment, if you read between the lines, to suggest that UBS has a serious problem here," says Bradley Simon, a former federal prosecutor at law firm Simon & Partners.

"They're making some really serious allegations that go to the heart of UBS."

The US department of justice has been gunning for UBS for many months. It alleges that the bank aggressively pushed its services to US citizens through none-too-subtle nudges about tax-avoidance benefits.

Between 2002 and 2007, some 20,000 American clients had private accounts at UBS with a hefty $20bn in total assets.

Florida's federal prosecutor, Alexander Acosta, who is leading the charge against UBS, says 17,000 of these clients concealed their accounts from the Internal Revenue Service.

Secret off-shore bank accounts are nothing new. But what appears to have enraged the US authorities are UBS's tactics.

According to the indictment, UBS at one stage had customers signing a form which said: "I would like to avoid disclosure of my identity to the US IRS."

Letters to clients assured them that since 1939, the bank had been successful in concealing the identity of account holders from the US authorities. There was even a training course for staff in September 2006 on how to conduct business discreetly – by using mail without UBS insignia, by using encrypted computers and "by changing hotels while travelling".

It all sounds a bit James Bond – and it gets worse. A former UBS staffer, Bradley Birkenfeld, who is cooperating with the authorities, claims he once used a toothpaste tube to smuggle diamonds across an international border for a bank client.

The charges against Weil carry a potential sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, so the 49-year-old is unlikely to be keen to hop on a transatlantic flight from Zurich. But if the bank ignores the indictment, UBS could face severe consequences – perhaps an indictment against the institution or a threat to its US banking licence.

"The justice department will be putting enormous pressure on UBS and possibly threatening an indictment against the bank," says Simon, who believes such a move could be shattering for the reputation of a large financial institution.

"Remember Arthur Andersen? When they were indicted, it spelt the end for them."

Switzerland rarely allows its citizens to be extradited to face charges abroad – and its national laws require banks to respect clients' privacy strictly. But there is a loophole: if there is evidence of criminal activity, Swiss banks can provide information to cooperate with law enforcement authorities.

UBS provided a bland statement saying Weil was relinquishing his duties until the matter was resolved. It added: "UBS is fully committed to continuing its efforts to cooperate with the investigation of its US cross-border business in a responsible manner with all relevant authorities towards a satisfactory resolution of this matter."

The drama is the last thing UBS needs. In common with rival banks across Europe and the US, it has been scorched by the global financial crisis, writing off more than $40bn of losses on toxic assets. Its longstanding chairman, Marcel Ospel, quit in April, admitting to "mistakes" amid shareholder unrest.

America's assault on Switzerland's banking secrecy is causing ructions in Zurich. A report in one paper, the Tages-Anzeiger, this week accused the US treasury of covertly tracking transactions between 100 Swiss institutions through international computer systems used for transaction clearance. The paper named a system called Remotegate and claimed that the Americans were using tools designed to tackle international terrorism.

The Swiss government is being tight-lipped. A spokesman at Switzerland's embassy in Washington would only say: "The embassy was informed by the department of justice of the charges brought against Mr Weil."

The US authorities want the names of UBS's 17,000 wealthy American clients. If it hands them over, the Swiss bank will set a highly significant precedent not only for its rivals in Switzerland but for banks in tax havens around the world which operate in the US.

If all 17,000 customers are forced to stump up tax, it could be a decent earner for the US treasury. Perhaps the money could even end up back in the banking system, helping to fund Henry Paulson's $700bn bail-out of America's own teetering financial institutions.

Last Member Of Jimi Hendrix Experience Dies

PORTLAND, Oregon — Mitch Mitchell, drummer for the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of the 1960s and the group's last surviving member, was found dead in his hotel room early Wednesday. He was 61.

Mitchell was a powerful force on the Hendrix band's 1967 debut album "Are You Experienced?" as well as the trio's albums "Electric Ladyland" and "Axis: Bold As Love." He had an explosive drumming style that can be heard in hard-charging songs such as "Fire" and "Manic Depression."


The Englishman had been drumming for the Experience Hendrix Tour, which performed Friday in Portland. It was the last stop on the West Coast part of the tour.


Hendrix died in 1970. Bass player Noel Redding died in 2003.


An employee at Portland's Benson Hotel called police after discovering Mitchell's body.


Erin Patrick, a deputy medical examiner, said Mitchell apparently died of natural causes. An autopsy was planned.


"He was a wonderful man, a brilliant musician and a true friend," said Janie Hendrix, chief executive of the Experience Hendrix Tour and Jimi Hendrix' stepsister. "His role in shaping the sound of the Jimi Hendrix Experience cannot be underestimated."


Bob Merlis, a spokesman for the tour, said Mitchell had stayed in Portland for a four-day vacation and planned to leave Wednesday.


"It was a devastating surprise," Merlis said. "Nobody drummed like he did."


He said he saw Mitchell perform two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and the drummer appeared to be healthy and upbeat.


Merlis said the tour was designed to bring together veteran musicians who had known Hendrix _ like Mitchell _ and younger artists, such as Grammy-nominated winner Jonny Lang, who have been influenced by him.


Blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who is 31 and was part of the tour, said Mitchell was to the drums what Hendrix was to the guitar.


"Today many of us have lost a dear friend, and the world has lost a rock n' roll hero," he said.


Mitchell was a one-of-a-kind drummer whose "jazz-tinged" style was influenced by Max Roach and Elvin Jones, Merlis said. The work was a vital part of both the Jimi Hendrix Experience in the 1960s and the Experience Hendrix Tour that ended last week, he said.


"If Jimi Hendrix were still alive," Merlis said, "he would have acknowledged that."


During his career Mitchell played with the best in the business _ not just Hendrix, but also Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Keith Richards, Jack Bruce, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters and others.


Mitchell performed with Hendrix and Redding at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, the U.S. debut of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. He also was member of a later version of the band that performed the closing set of the Woodstock Festival in August 1969 _ where Hendrix played a psychedelic version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the band launched into "Purple Haze."


The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 1992. According to the Hall of Fame, Mitchell was born July 9, 1947, in Ealing, England.


Terry Stewart, chief executive of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, said Mitchell transformed his instrument from a "strictly percussive element to a lead instrument."


"His interplay with Jimi Hendrix's guitar on songs like 'Fire' is truly amazing," Stewart said Wednesday. "Mitch Mitchell had a massive influence on rock 'n' roll drumming and took it to new heights."


Hendrix, Redding and Mitchell held their first rehearsal in October 1966, according to the Hall of Fame's Web site.


In an interview last month with the Boston Herald, Mitchell said he met Hendrix "in this sleazy little club."


"We did some Chuck Berry and took it from there," Mitchell told the newspaper. "I suppose it worked."

Climate change

Obama's message to the world: we will act quickly on climate change

• It's going to be busy 2009, says president-elect's aide
• Judges reject ban on navy exercises to protect sealife

Barack Obama is sending Madeleine Albright to the G20 summit in Washington. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Barack Obama, who has spent much of the time since his election closeted with his advisers in Chicago, sent a strong signal yesterday that he plans a decisive break with George Bush on environmental policy once he moves into the White House.

The move was part of a carefully coded series of messages from Obama meant to reassure America and the world about the shape of his administration, which does not assume power until January 20.

Also yesterday, Obama appointed Madeleine Albright, who served as Bill Clinton's secretary of state, and Jim Leach, a former Republican member of Congress from Iowa who endorsed his campaign, to meet international delegations visiting Washington for the G20 summit at the weekend. Obama will not attend the summit, and aides have repeatedly noted that Bush remains president until January 20.

But while Obama and Joe Biden, the vice president-elect, have been elusive since the election, the Democrat has delivered a number of messages intended to heighten anticipation of changes to come.

In one such signal the president-elect sent Jason Grumet, a policy adviser mentioned for a possible energy post, to an environmental conference in Washington to offer reassurances that there would be swift movement on climate change legislation. "The whole transition team felt it important to be here," Grumet said. "I think it is going to be a very very busy 2009, and I think we are going to need all of you to be on top of your game."

However, Grumet did not offer policy specifics, and his optimism was not shared by others at the conference, organised by the consulting group Point Carbon and the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change.

Jeff Bingaman, the New Mexico senator who chairs the Senate's energy and national resources committee and another possibility for a post in the administration, said it was highly unlikely that Obama could sign into law cap and trade legislation next year. "I think the reality is that it may take more than a year to get it all done," he said, pointing to 2010.

Grumet's brief appearance was widely seen as a signal that Obama, who for nearly two years of campaigning warned of a "planet in peril", was serious about following through on a 30-point environmental agenda that called for creating green jobs, cutting US oil consumption, and moving to renewable sources of energy,

It was the second time in 24 hours that Obama had tried to reassure the world that he wanted a radical departure from Bush's policy on the environment. Obama has said repeatedly that the global economic crisis remains his top priority, but John Podesta, part of the troika overseeing the transition, said on Tuesday that the environment was at the top of the Democrats' agenda. "I anticipate him moving very aggressively and very rapidly on the whole question of transforming the energy platform in the United States from high carbon energy to low carbon energy," he said.

For campaigners, change cannot come soon enough. Yesterday the supreme court rejected environmental protections for whales, dolphins and other marine mammals imposed on US navy sonar training exercises off southern California. Environmental groups had argued that intense sound waves could hurt or even kill some 37 species including sea lions and endangered blue whales by interfering with their ability to communicate and navigate. At one stage Bush intervened by citing the national security necessity of the training.

The hiatus between election and inauguration has led to intense speculation about cabinet appointments and policy breaks with the Bush White House.

Yesterday the Washington Post reported that Obama intended to replace the two top intelligence officials early in his administration. Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, and General Michael Hayden, the CIA chief, are associated with the Bush administration's most controversial policies, including monitoring the email and phone calls of US citizens without court oversight.

Some of the Obama camp's efforts to stoke anticipation have been countered with caution - and at times frustration. Yesterday Bingaman warned that Obama urgently needed to appoint his cabinet secretaries. "The idea that the transition team develops policies and then gets new people in place ... that is not the way I have seen it in Washington," he said.

Wow. Bail-out Bonds, who'd a thunk it?

US treasury sells bail-out bonds

US Treasury says the bonds are needed to manage rising debt levels

The United States government plans to sell bonds worth $55bn (£34bn) next week in an effort to finance its bank rescue programme.

In a first $25bn auction on Monday, the Treasury Department launched a new type of bond, which will reach maturity after three years.

The rest of the amount will be raised later next week through the sale of traditional 10-year and 30-year bonds.

US bonds earn a fixed rate of interest every six months until maturity.

Mounting deficit

By selling bonds and notes the US government will finance the rescue package aimed at buying up Wall Street's bad debts in an effort to ease the credit crunch which is crippling the US economy.

The US Treasury expects to raise up to $550bn by the end of 2008.

BOND A debt security - or more simply an IOU. The bond states when a loan must be repaid and what interest the borrower (issuer) must pay to the holder.

The administration will use some of the money raised through bonds to purchase toxic assets from troubled banks, hoping that they will increase in value once the crisis has passed.

The Treasury argued that launching the new type of bonds was critical in a moment when other sources of revenue were diminishing.

"The deterioration in the economy and financial markets has led to a commensurate decline in individual and corporate tax receipts", it said in a statement.

The US administration expects the total deficit for the 2008 financial year to raise to $455bn, with the forecast for 2009 close to $1 trillion.

US banks have been struggling since the middle of 2007 with rising mortgage defaults and a credit crisis that has virtually frozen inter-bank lending and severely restricted lending to consumers.

Fannie Mae loss widens to $29bn

Fannie Mae loss widens to $29bn

US mortgage finance firm Fannie Mae has reported a significant increase in third-quarter losses in the wake of the slowing housing sector.

Losses hit $28.99bn (£18.3bn) in the three months to 30 September from a loss of $1.4bn a year earlier, largely due to a tax-related charge of $21.4bn.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were bailed out by the US government in a record US corporate rescue deal in September.

Both firms buy mortgages from approved lenders then sell them to investors.

Neither Freddie Mac nor Mannie Mae lend directly to borrowers.

Fannie Mae said it had set a further $9.2bn aside to cover credit losses, as the number of defaults rise.

The Washington-based firm said it expected house prices to continue falling in 2008 in its upper range of estimates between 7% and 9%.

Together Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee almost half of all US home loans.

Under a rescue plan passed by Congress in July, the US government gained the right to provide unlimited liquidity to the two companies and to buy their shares, to prevent them from collapsing.

lost US nuclear bomb

Mystery of lost US nuclear bomb

By Gordon Corera BBC News security correspondent, northern Greenland

The United States abandoned a nuclear weapon beneath the ice in northern Greenland following a crash in 1968, a BBC investigation has found.

Its unique vantage point - perched at the top of the world - has meant that Thule Air Base has been of immense strategic importance to the US since it was built in the early 1950s, allowing a radar to scan the skies for missiles coming over the North Pole.

The Pentagon believed the Soviet Union would take out the base as a prelude to a nuclear strike against the US and so in 1960 began flying "Chrome Dome" missions. Nuclear-armed B52 bombers continuously circled over Thule - and could head straight to Moscow if they witnessed its destruction.

Greenland is a self-governing province of Denmark but the carrying of nuclear weapons over Danish territory was kept secret.

'Darker story'

But on 21 January 1968, one of those missions went wrong.

Pilots recount Thule crash

We reunited two of the pilots, John Haug and Joe D'Amario, 40 years on to tell the story of how their plane ended up crashing on the ice a few miles out from the base.

In the aftermath, military personnel, local Greenlanders and Danish workers rushed to the scene to help.

Eventually, a remarkable operation would unfold over the coming months to recover thousands of tiny pieces of debris scattered across the frozen bay, as well as to collect some 500 million gallons of ice, some of it containing radioactive debris.

A declassified US government video, obtained by the BBC, documents the clear-up and gives some ideas of the scale of the operation.

It would be very difficult for anyone else to recover classified pieces if we couldn't find them William H Chamber Former US nuclear arms designer

The high explosives surrounding the four nuclear weapons had detonated but without setting off the actual nuclear devices, which had not been armed by the crew.

The Pentagon maintained that all four weapons had been "destroyed".

This may be technically true, since the bombs were no longer complete, but declassified documents obtained by the BBC under the US Freedom of Information Act, parts of which remain classified, reveal a much darker story, which has been confirmed by individuals involved in the clear-up and those who have had access to details since.

The documents make clear that within weeks of the incident, investigators piecing together the fragments realised that only three of the weapons could be accounted for.

Even by the end of January, one document talks of a blackened section of ice which had re-frozen with shroud lines from a weapon parachute. "Speculate something melted through ice such as burning primary or secondary," the document reads, the primary or secondary referring to parts of the weapon.

By April, a decision had been taken to send a Star III submarine to the base to look for the lost bomb, which had the serial number 78252. (A similar submarine search off the coast of Spain two years earlier had led to another weapon being recovered.)

But the real purpose of this search was deliberately hidden from Danish officials.

One document from July reads: "Fact that this operation includes search for object or missing weapon part is to be treated as confidential NOFORN", the last word meaning not to be disclosed to any foreign country.

"For discussion with Danes, this operation should be referred to as a survey repeat survey of bottom under impact point," it continued.

'Failure'

But the underwater search was beset by technical problems and, as winter encroached and the ice began to freeze over, the documents recount something approaching panic setting in.

US 'abandoned nuclear bomb'

As well as the fact they contained uranium and plutonium, the abandoned weapons parts were highly sensitive because of the way in which the design, shape and amount of uranium revealed classified elements of nuclear warhead design.

But eventually, the search was abandoned. Diagrams and notes included in the declassified documents make clear it was not possible to search the entire area where debris from the crash had spread.

We tracked down a number of officials who were involved in dealing with the aftermath of the incident.

One was William H Chambers, a former nuclear weapons designer at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory who once ran a team dealing with accidents, including the Thule crash.

"There was disappointment in what you might call a failure to return all of the components," he told the BBC, explaining the logic behind the decision to abandon the search.

The US was flying so-called Chrome Dome missions over Greenland

"It would be very difficult for anyone else to recover classified pieces if we couldn't find them."

The view was that no-one else would be able covertly to acquire the sensitive pieces and that the radioactive material would dissolve in such a large body of water, making it harmless.

Other officials who have seen classified files on the accident confirmed the abandonment of a weapon.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the investigation, referring back to previous official studies of the incident.

But the crash, clear-up and mystery of the lost bomb have continued to haunt those involved at the time - and those who live in the region now - with continued concerns over the environmental and health impact of the events of that day in 1968.